Heir to the Empire

I remember going to a friend’s house as a kid and seeing some Star Wars books on his family’s bookshelves.  I remember being confused by that since I knew there were only three movies, and the titles on the spines of these books had nothing to do with the movies except the “Star Wars” part.  I did not understand at all that there was an entire fictional world that nerds had created beyond the original three movies.  It really didn’t interest me, so I didn’t think much of it until more recently, when some people in my family got into Star Wars and re-opened the question of what is now referred to as something like the “expanded universe” (Star Wars nerds somewhere will happily tell me I’ve used incorrect terminology, I’m sure).  As I became acquainted with Star Wars Rebels, I was introduced to a villain named Thrawn, who was a great bad guy in the animated series, and I didn’t know that he had actually existed for a long time in some of those books I saw at that friend’s house.

Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn (ISBN: 978-0-593-35876-4) is the first in a trilogy (seems writers and publishers have long found trilogies to be very marketable) featuring a blue-skinned, red-eyed humanoid alien as the brains behind what is left of the Empire after Luke Skywalker and the Rebellion had conquered the Empire in the movies.  Thrawn is written as an incredibly smart military and political genius who not only knows the art of war and diplomacy, but is also a student of culture, particularly the arts.  He uses this knowledge to help him understand his enemies and stay one step ahead of them.  The book also includes movie favorites like Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Leia Organa, Lando Calrissian, and others.  They have their own adventures fighting off remnants of the Empire (commanded by Thrawn), dealing with pirates (the underworld always being a Star Wars staple), and fighting with new enemies like the ape-like Rukh or the human Mara Jade.  Rukh and his species are ruthless killers, but not quite up to the task of defeating Wookies, and Leia ends up making an uneasy truce with one of the aliens since they are all loyal to Darth Vader and Leia is his daughter.  Luke Skywalker, Han, Lando, and the famous droids R2-D2 and C-3PO are captured by Mara Jade and other pirates, spend time negotiating with them, and eventually get away by banding together with the pirates to fight off Imperial forces aided by an imposter Jedi.  The last big event in the book is Thrawn’s forces attempting to attack a freight depot and make off with hundreds of ships for his depleted Imperial navy.  With Luke Skywalker’s aid, that attack is more or less thwarted, but since the books is the first in a series, it feels very much left open and unresolved.

I thought the book was OK.  Other Star Wars books I’ve read, like the Ahsoka book, were better.  I found that this one simply didn’t hold my attention.  To me, that’s saying something because I came in already thinking Thrawn was a pretty cool character.  Maybe it’s because there were other storylines?  I was also seriously underwhelmed with the writing.  I thought it was to repetitive and cliché.  One does not need to hear about the same facial expression every time a character thinks or does the same thing.  The reader gets it after the first couple times.  I thought that maybe a different way of saying things or some different words could’ve been used.  I know it’s painfully obvious when a writer has been using a thesaurus, but a little variety couldn’t hurt.  I think I wasn’t too impressed with the sections about the old Star Wars characters.  This story would’ve been better had it been all new, not the writer’s take on characters that every person has their own ideas about.  Fans who are all in will likely like the book, but for us who just kind of hover on the edges of Star Wars fandom, it was forgettable.

This work, including all text, photographs, and other original work, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License and is copyrighted © MMXXI John Pruess.

Star Wars: A New Dawn

The Star Wars franchise is interesting in that is has caught a firm hold of the imaginations of so many people.  Now that Disney owns it, the level of commercialization associated with it has, of course, skyrocketed.  One of the things Disney has done is make animated series that tie into their official, or canon, universe.  The second of these is called Star Wars Rebels.  It ran for four seasons, and I have watched most of the episodes (working through the fourth season as of this writing), thanks, in large part, to family members who find it to be pretty much the best thing ever.  The series has been better than I would’ve expected (other than the lamely rendered lightsabers, which are too thin and pointy).

Star Wars: A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller (ISBN: 978-0-553-39286-9) talks about how two of the main Rebels characters met and teamed up to fight the Empire.  A guy named Kanan is living out his life in anonymity, usually jumping from one job to another to stay ahead of anyone really getting to know him, mostly because he’s a little afraid of the Empire and because he’s really never known anything different.  His public image is that of a rough-and-tumble cowboy, piloting ships carrying explosives and fighting anyone who so much as looks at him crookedly.  However, he often finds himself helping people out of sticky situations, usually seemingly without thinking as it just seems to be a part of who he is.  Opposite him is Hera, a Twi’lek, a humanoid alien (basically a human with so-called head-tails), who is an excellent pilot and has already dedicated her life to fighting against the Empire, although she is not part of any truly organized effort.  Their worlds collide on a planet where the moon is the real draw because it can be mined.  Kanan saves a few people, having used the Force to keep a cave from collapsing on them, and so is looking for a way away from the planet to avoid detection as a former Jedi.  Hera comes to get some information from a guy who works for a Star Wars version of a signals intelligence agency.  They meet in a dark alley, fighting off the local gang bangers and protecting people in the process.  Eventually, rather begrudgingly (especially for Kanan), they’re drawn into a mission that involves smuggling things on board an Imperial ship, fighting a cyborg, and a few shoot-outs.  There’s lots of action, some Star Wars-style romance, and the necessary positive ending after all the damage is done along the way.  The result is that the groundwork is laid for Hera and Canan, no longer completely running from his Jedi past, leading a small team of rebels all over the galaxy, resisting the Empire whenever they get the chance.

Since the series has been a pleasant surprise, I figured the book would decent, and I was not disappointed.  In a way, it was predictable, and Kanan’s storyline was an awful lot like Ahsoka’s, but I still found the story fun to read, and there was enough to the plot to keep it interesting, including a number of minor characters that were developed sufficiently to make them a good part of the story.  Fans of the TV show will enjoy the book, but if there are Star Wars fans thinking of giving the TV show a try, this book would probably be good to read before watching.  It would make it a bit less predictable.  Finally, as with all things Star Wars, there were enough loose ends to make it very easy for someone to come along and write the next installment or a spin-off.

This work, including all text, photographs, and other original work, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 3.0 License and is copyrighted © MMXIV John Pruess.